Over 3,000 young people in Ballyfermot and inner city hit hard by banker’s budget

Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh has condemned the scandalous decision of the Fianna Fáil and Green coalition to inflict cuts of between €50 and €100 on young people currently out of work.

Speaking today Deputy Ó Snodaigh said, “According to figures published by the National Youth Council of Ireland there are almost 3,300 young people under the age of 25 who are out of work in the Dublin South Central constituency alone.

“Youth unemployment has trebled in the last three years and one in four young people in Ireland are now unemployed. The reduction of the jobseekers benefit will trap many in poverty, encourage more to emigrate and inflict significant hardship on many Irish young people.

“The Government is determined to sacrifice a generation of Irish young people to appease the bankers.

“They say they are doing it to encourage young people to take up jobs. What jobs? The disastrous economic policies of this Government have ensured there are no jobs available. Young people want jobs, they don’t need a cut in their supports to make them want it more. What we needed from this budget was investment in job creation and that was sorely absent.

“There is an alternative. Earlier this year Sinn Féin was the first party to publish a comprehensive job protection and creation strategy with over 80 proposals focused on our number one priority, getting people back to work.

“Instead of looking to that, or the ideas put forward by the trade union movement and the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, the Government chose to cut public services, cut the wages of nurses, teachers and fire fighters and to target our young people for cuts.”